Via Spencer Ackerman, it looks like President Obama is trying to solidify support for his escalation in Afghanistan on the right, with one of his top advisers set to give a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. And the discussion around the speech will be moderated by the adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal who is known as the architect of the surge in Iraq.
Spencer explains two reasons why this is an interesting choice of venue for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michéle Flournoy:
First, she co-founded the most influential think tank of the Obama era, the Center for a New American Security. And second, AEI is the locus of neoconservatism, the ideology that, more than any other, encouraged the United States to ignore and under-resource the Afghanistan war during the Bush administration.
It’s also notable that a panel discussion that goes along with Flournoy’s Monday speech will be moderated by Fred Kagan, a hawkish thinker who advised the Bush Administration and, as we’ve reported, now advises McChrystal on Afghanistan.
A September AEI report authored by Fred and his wife, Kimberley, called for 40,000-45,000 new troops for Afghanistan, more than the 30,000 Obama is sending.
